Rakano's Revenge: Kira's Surging Blitz

Forget Rakano Surge Midrange - say hello to Kira's Surging Blitz Mid-Low-Range: Electric Boogaloo; the unwanted sequel to the deck you hate!

Remember Rakano Surge from last month? Me neither, because its main OTK and value engine (Friends in Low Places) got shot. You couldn't OTK people out of nowhere with FiLP pulling Trickshot Ruffian out of nowhere or get an Aegis Marley, Heroic Marshal to surge with 10+ attack next turn. Can't do that anymore.

But, how about killing people on T4 or murdering them with sheer card advantage instead?

Enter the new Rakano Surge: sleeker and lower to the ground. Functions like an aggressive midrange deck with a combo element to it. We seek to ramp up justice influence to 4+ ASAP, and then abuse Kira, Ascending and Hooru Envoy for card draw, hopefully drawing more tricks to keep the gravy train rolling. We use bubble shield to protect from removal, intrusion to laugh at desert alchemists and blockers, and tricks to push damage or win blocks. Or go over it all with Crescendo.

Overall, I think it's competitive enough. That said, it will fold to enough removal or boardwipes, like any aggro deck, so don't forget to pace your threats if you're against a control deck. Oh, and Rolant, Iron Tyrant will definitely make you cry or concede unless you have the right answers.

General Gameplan:

1. Mulligan for 3 power (etchings count) that leans towards justice - you only need 2F for Ijin, Walking Armory. In a perfect world, your hand would have 1 Justice Symbol, 1 Rakano Cylix, and 1 Seat (or another cylix / justice sigil). Assuming perfect scenario still, your units would be Ironthorn and either Kira or Hooru Envoy plus a bubble shield and a finest hour or intrusion. This lets you react accordingly to any of the current popular deck metas.
2. Play your power, and play your units while keeping 1 power to react. Only play units on-curve early if you are confident (or OK with) that you won't eat an annihilate or burn.
3. Get justice to 4 minimum ASAP - getting Justice to 8 is your end goal, but 4 is what allows you to abuse Kira for card draw.
4. Play according to situation - aggro deck? Defend or race. Control? Go for face, but be mindful of ambush & removal. Midrange? Use tricks to win blocks, and build value via Kira/Envoy draw, or go over with Crescendo.

Remember: Intrusion can give you insane value if you play both targets on Kira/Envoys.

Card notes & rationale:
- Kira, the Prodigy can get scary quick when your opponent doesn't have removal.
- Trickshot Ruffian is here to keep your opponents miserable later in the game.
- FiLP is still good as a combat trick, and synergizes with Kira the Prodigy. Occasionally actually hits its influence too, so you get to draw a unit.
- Ironthorn, Lawman as always, remains an engine that does lots of work towards building your influence. Helps us turn power into draw, and turn evangels into power when we don't need a body.
- Hooru Envoy: Budget Kira Ascending at 4 Justice influence.
- Ijin, Walking Armory If we're abusing J influence, might as well, right? Helps us get from 5 to 6 and 7 to 8 justice influence as well - but bear in mind that the influence addition happens after Kira, so the 8th Justice influence trigger won't work if you're getting the 8th influence using Ijin's attack.
- Kodosh's Stranger hilariously effective versus worldpyre decks, but i'll admit that he's here purely for the highroll potential - you can kill people as early as Turn 4 by pumping then attacking or using Crescendo into Touch of Force. My record has been 28 damage in one hit via Force & Finest Hour. Made of paper and eats removal for all 3 main courses of the day (unless you can protect/invest in him).

Market

Simple stuff here, can likely be made much better by someone who's a better builder than me. Do remember that only 3 out of 5 cards can be acquired via any market card - crescendo for the 3 costs and fire, and Etchings for siege, conjuring, and mantle.

- Lay Siege - for surprise blocking shenanigans & breaking permafrost spam.
- Ruincrawler Yeti - the poor man's response to Grodov's burden.
- Touch of Force - Enables OTK shenanigans, as well as putting our opponents on a clock
- Wind Conjuring - Breaks permafrost, wins fights, surprises opponents, and high roll invoke potential all in one? Sign me up!
- Mantle of Justice - slap it on evangel for lifesteal, or a flyer to put your opponent on a clock.

Credit to Liontozion for beating my face with this deck every time I faced him while climbing this month to masters. I simply reverse engineered his deck and adjusted it to what I think works. That said, this is definitely an untuned list because I'm a mediocre deckbuilder, so I expect some sort of tuned variation to pop up eventually.

In the meantime, enjoy!